McKinsey Vs Boutique banking advice
What are your thoughts on McKinsey associate vs an investment banking associate role at a mid cap boutique for post MBA?
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They're totally different industries. Do you want to work in consulting? If yes, McK
There are a million existing "Consulting vs [_____ industry" threads that can help you understand how consulting compares vs finance
Depends what you want to do. If finance, IB. Else, McKinsey.
It probably depends on a variety of factors and what you are looking to get out of it! Given they are different jobs in different industries it is hard to compare directly. Here are a few starter things to think about! What's important to you?
What type of work do you like to do?
If you like working with teams for short burst on single projects on strategic issues consulting may feel right. If you like detailed oriented process work with more quant then IB could make more sense (this is simplifying a bit). At the end of the day, bankers are working on acquisitions. Does this excite you? For some - this is very motivating work.
Where do you see yourself in 5-10 years?
If you are optimizing purely for money, then probably makes sense to go after the IB job. It is safe to say you will make more money if you stick to that path over time. However, if you want to be leading strategy for a company, start something yourself, or have broader exit opps then McKinsey could make sense.
How important is W/L balance to you?
While McKinsey isn't known for W/L balance, I would bet bottom dollar the mid market boutique will be worse by an order of magnitude.
How important is brand and/or pay?
IB for pay, McKinsey for brand. I cared a lot about brand and not so much about pay in determining what to do. Others have different priorities.
Thanks so much! Would you add any points or considerations for McKinsey's PE practice?
The work is really interesting, but it is definitely tougher for your work life balance given everything is on 2-4 week sprints. Commercial diligence is very fun and strategic. Great for learning a new industry fast. Kind of like a case study on steroids for 2 weeks.
That said, you don’t get paid more and path to partner can be a bit trickier given they will want you to prove you have sticky long term client relationships and not live and die by the m&a booms/busts
I’m biased as someone at MBB, and would want more clarity on what exactly level shop this IB job is, but that being said I’d 100% take the McKinsey job and will also offer some counters to points mentioned above.
To start, McKinsey is arguably the best name in business. While IB associate may pay you more while youre there, unless you plan to stay in IB forever then I’d argue your pay with the McKinsey brand will outstrip a boutique IB by a substantial margin in the long run.
Id also disagree with a point made about IB being more quantitative. Yeah, you’re in excel way more and will be an expert, but in today’s business world that is not really a quantitative skillset. McKinsey will give you exposure to actual analytical tools that are in demand (Tableau, SQL, Alteryx).
To me, the only reason you should consider banking is if you are just a finance person to the core. Like you truly love finance and can’t imagine doing anything else.
Happy to answer any follow up questions!
Do you ever see post-mba IB associates pivot to consulting?
Not saying it’s impossible, but no I don’t really ever see it. MBB doesn’t do a ton of experienced hiring to begin with, and at least from what I’ve seen it doesn’t tend to be post-MBA folks.
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